Jeremy Sanford’s Testimony (For Churches, Celebrate Recovery & Ministry Events)

My name is Jeremy Sanford. I’m married to my wife, Shanie, and together we have four beautiful children. Today, I am an ordained minister, a Christian life coach, and the founder of Called Out Christian Ministries. But for most of my life, I was lost, broken, and living in and out of addiction.

I grew up in a home where drugs were normal. My parents were addicts, and we never went to church. I carried that same brokenness into adulthood. When Shanie and I got married, she had a daughter, I had a daughter, and we later had a son together. Shanie told me she wanted our kids raised in church, so we started going, but I was still living in sin. I still had one foot in the world.

Eventually, my addiction pulled me back under. I abandoned my wife and children for a year. I lost everything and lived from motel to motel, night after night, until God finally sat me down. I was arrested and placed in jail.

For the first week, all I did was sleep. When the fog lifted, for the first time in a year I could feel again, feel the pain I caused my wife, my kids, my mother, and my community. Drugs numb everything… until they don’t. And then the truth hits you hard.

When I went to court, I was sentenced to five years in TDCJ. When I called my wife for the first time in a year to tell her the news, she told me she had news too – she was sending divorce papers. I deserved it. For the first time in my life, I felt godly sorrow. I knew I deserved hell for the life I had lived. But that same day, God performed my first miracle. A guard walked in and said,

“Sanford, you’ve got mail.”

It was a Bible.

I fell on my face that night – broken, weeping, repenting. I read and prayed, read and prayed, all night long. I cried out for mercy. I confessed everything. I surrendered everything. I finally understood that Jesus Christ took my place, died for me, and was offering me grace I never deserved.

The next morning, after fully surrendering to the Lord, I sat at a table and began writing what I now call “Shanie’s Prayers.” I told God, “Even if she divorces me and remarries, I will love, support, and protect her and the kids for the rest of my life.” I wrote her a prayer every single day and mailed them every week. I never missed.

I went from county jail to the Holiday Unit and eventually was moved to the Pam Lynchner Unit. On my first day in the dorm, my celly, 6’5”, 300 pounds, stood up and said, “I better see you at the prayer circle tonight.” That caught me off guard, but we became close and studied the Bible together.

One morning I prayed, “Lord, please just let me know my family is okay.” I hadn’t heard from anyone in six months. That same day the guard said, “Sanford, you’ve got mail.” I braced myself, expecting divorce papers. Instead, it was a typed letter from Shanie. She wrote:

“What God has joined together, let no man separate, not even the man who abandoned his wife and kids for drugs.”

She wrote that the prayers I sent her had softened her heart. That was my second miracle.

I wrote back saying I wanted her and the kids to visit, but I wanted confirmation from God first. I prayed, and God told me plainly: “They can come see you. The whole trip will be paid for.”

I mailed that letter to Shanie and went back to the dorm. A guard walked in and said,

“Sanford, you have a visit.”

I went down and there were Shanie and my children standing there for the first time in a year and a half.

I cried like a baby. I told Shanie what God had said about the trip being paid for. She said, “Your mom let us use her car. She paid for all the gas and all the meals.”

Miracle. God did exactly what He said He would do. God restored my family, and I threw myself into His Word. I couldn’t get enough.

One day in the chaplain’s office, her assistant asked if I had signed up for the faith-based dorm. I hadn’t, but I prayed about it and added my name—there was a year-long waiting list. Three days later, a guard said,

“Sanford, pack your stuff. You’re moving to the faith-based dorm.”

One week later, the chaplain called me in and offered me a position as the chaplain’s assistant. I prayed about it and accepted it. God placed me directly into ministry. For nine months I learned everything I could about ministry, discipleship, and leadership. I graduated from the program and stayed on as an elder.

Then COVID hit. Everything shut down. No church, no classes, no pastors coming in, no faith-based dorm.

I prayed and felt led to ask the chaplain if I could teach the dorm classes and preach for the unit. She said no, the warden would have to approve.

So that Sunday, we turned off the TV and held our own service. Praise, worship, and I preached. The guards stood outside the window watching because they had never seen inmates run their own service.

The next day the warden came down. I was teaching a class. He opened the door and said, “What are you doing?”

I said, “Teaching these men how to become men of God.”

And he allowed it. He let me teach the classes. He kept the faith-based dorm open. And he permitted me to preach for the whole unit – 2,500 men. The first service since COVID was packed. I was terrified, but I kept thinking of Isaiah:

“Here am I, Lord. Send me.”

And God moved. Men were saved. We even baptized men right there in the prison. God worked miracles in me and through me.

When I paroled out, I was reunited with my family. A pastor friend gave me a job the day I was released, and I enrolled in online Bible school. Today I am an ordained minister, a Christian life coach, and I founded a nonprofit called Called Out Christian. Now God allows me to go back into prisons, churches, and recovery groups to share one truth:

If you completely surrender to Jesus Christ,
no chain is too strong,
no addiction is too deep,
and no life is too far gone.
He breaks every chain.